Chapter 17.1

“Is she going out for me on purpose?”

That was always the case with Cecilia. She was so sweet to the point that she would leave me alone.

‘I’m grateful..’

I was a little worried that it would be difficult to go somewhere with such an excuse to meet someone.

“Uhm… I think Cecilia thinks she’s awake.”

Every day, my tableware was prepared for two sets.

Two glasses, two seats.

The soup on the other side was thinner than mine.

“Mom… haven’t woken up yet…”

Ordinary people couldn’t understand. It’s been almost 10 days since my mom came here and slept. It was certainly not unusual for Cecilia to be mistaken that her mother had woken up.

So I was thinking about it for a while, and I ate in my designated meal position, and I used the other meal position next to me.

At least I think it’s better to pretend that my mother was awake.

“Come on, she needs to hear him say she can stay here. I wouldn’t like my mom to sleep too long either.”

I wondered if I should wake her up and let her eat now, but my mother would be too worried.

As soon as she’d wake up, I was sure she’d nag about a situation, though that hasn’t happened yet.

“But, Mom, sleep a little longer. I’ll be recognized by everyone soon.”

Still, my mother’s weight had gradually increased, perhaps because she slept better than when she was in our previous place. So I smiled a little and emptied out the food one by one.

Twenty minutes after that, I almost finished my meal. Just in time, the door opened with a knock.

“Cecilia, are you finally here?”

But it wasn’t Cecilia who answered my question.

“You’ve been close to Cecilia.”

The sudden voice of a man surprised me and flinched.

“Oh…!”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Oh! Oh! Long time no see, Daddy.”

As soon as I confirmed that it was the Grand Duke who entered the room, I ran to him with a big smile.

“…Did you say ‘Daddy’?”

“Yeah, you don’t like it?”

“…I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I just wondered because you didn’t call me that last time.”

“Ah…”

There was silence between us at the moment.

“Have you adjusted well?”

“Yes!”

I nodded at him with the brightest expression I could ever show. It’s not that I didn’t do it before, but it’s true that I had a very comfortable time here.

At first there was some disagreement, but Cecilia, whom the Grand Duke sent to me, was actually a very friendly person.

For me, the Grand Duke was a good man who provided me with a good bedroom and delicious food.

“Has there been any discomfort?”

“Yes.”

The Grand Duke was a very nice man by any stretch of the imagination.

“I guess it’s right that you shouldn’t judge a person based on rumors.”

The rumors surrounding Grand Duke Genox Aveland, which had come up every time during my past lives, have always been the worst.

History was only written by the victors, and he had always been a loser.

As I was living in an abandoned Imperial Palace, there wasn’t much information I could hear. There were few who even wrote down the words of the losers in detail or talked about them.

‘Worst Grand Duke. After a thousand years of history, the Grand Duke of Aveland was eventually destroyed by Genox.’

Knights made a mockery of his great achievement. The only thing I could hear was the ridiculous story. The emperor, even the knights in the palace, did not say what the Duke had done or how he had been captured.

Instead, they only cursed at him and called him an idiot.

He said that if the Duke hadn’t rebelled against him, he could have lived forever until the collapse of the Empire, but he was foolish.

‘There was no obvious reason why everyone didn’t understand.’

Although the Duke had the blood of the Royal Family, the blood was weak.

Therefore, it was unexpected. However, the Grand Duke rebelled, and his rebellion failed miserably by the Emperor, who was keeping an eye on him.

I could tell him everything I know. The reason was that he wanted his own territory for a very long time ago.

‘There must have been another reason.’

If no…

I looked at the Grand Duke in front of me.

Did he really coveted the Royal Family’s bloodline and started the rebellion?

Rumor has it that he’s crazy and out of his mind, but he doesn’t seem so to me.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Well it’s been a while!”

“I see. I haven’t been here in a while after all.”

Cecilia always used to say nice things about the Grand Duke.

And then she talked all the time about the Grand Duke being a good man, so he’ll protect me.

I smiled so brightly at him to the point that I couldn’t see him.

‘The Emperor’s people are in the Grand Duchy.’

Among them, we could find those who ratted out the Grand Duke in the future. The people of the Emperor were here.

That would be the first thing to prove my strength.

“…Did you miss me that much?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“…You didn’t?”

“Yes!”

Was he perhaps disappointed? Looking at his face, it was filled with disappointment, as if thinking of it otherwise.

“You are quite bold. Ordinary kids want to get my attention anyway.”

“That’s not how you get attention. I will receive it as a useful human being.”

Rather, as if it were interesting to see me, the Grand Duke, who stepped closer, leaned in front of me.